The North Korean leader is on a train to Vietnam for the summit with the American President Donald Trump.

Kim Jong-un is accompanied by Kim Yong Chol, who has been a key negotiator in talks with the US, and Kim Yo Jong, the leader’s sister. The Trump-Kim meeting is slated for Wednesday and Thursday in Hanoi. The colonial-era Government Guest House in central Hanoi is expected to be the venue for the Trump-Kim meeting. Vietnam has announced a traffic ban along Kim’s possible arrival route. Kim’s overseas travel plans are routinely kept secret. It could take more than two days for the train to Vietnam.

Kim on train

Experts say Kim will seek a U.S. commitment for improved bilateral relations and partial sanctions relief. Last year, North Korea suspended its nuclear and long-range missile tests and unilaterally dismantled its nuclear testing ground and parts of a rocket launch facility. Washington has called for more concrete steps from Pyongyang toward denuclearisation. Previously, Kim declared: "I'm a father and a husband. And I have children. And I don't want my children to carry the nuclear weapon on their back their whole life." North Korea is willing to negotiate the shut down of its Yongbyon plutonium production plant. Washington could offer to lift economic sanctions, reopen military and diplomatic ties with North Korea, and formally sign a peace treaty to end the 1950-1953 Korean war. At the same time, South Korea wants to reopen the mothballed joint Kaesong industrial park, and push ahead with joint rail and road links between north and south.